terriko

My Little Robot

This is crossposted from Curiousity.ca, my personal maker blog. If you want to link to this post, please use the original link since the formatting there is usually better.

A number of weeks back, it occurred to me that as an adult with disposable income, I could buy a robot anytime I wanted to. So I did. Or rather, I bought a kit to build my own robot. I haven’t had as much time to play with as I’d like (the downside to being an adult with a job), but I’m hoping to take it out to Albuquerque Mini Maker Faire this weekend, so I’ve been experimenting with programs to show it off.

Here’s a video:

Cute, eh? That was just me making sure that the sensor “whiskers” work, but it’s kind of a convenient program because I don’t have to worry about it falling off the table. Right now, I know how to make it flash lights, move the wheels, and make noise with the little speaker on top, so either I should make a box for it to play in and teach it to do basic collision avoidance, or maybe work on a program where people can touch it and have it react, much like the one it’s running now. I’ve only got a couple of days to finish: Maker Faire is the 24th and 25th!